Librarian News

Professional and Scholarly Activities

Reid Boehm presented on a panel, “Distributed, Dynamic, Accessible: Cooperative Planning for a Community-Created Data Rescue Toolkit,” at the Research Data Access & Preservation Association Summit.

Boehm was invited by the Center for Open Science to serve on an advisory committee for an IMLS National Digital Infrastructures and Initiatives project entitled “Building Infrastructure & Integrations for Open Data Preservation and Access.”

Taylor Davis-Van Atta edited and published Music & Literature no. 9; and was an organizer and panelist for “Two of Canada’s Leading Artists: Sylvia Legris and Guy Vanderhaeghe” at University of Houston-Downtown, in collaboration with Brazos Bookstore, Pro Helvetia, and the Cultural Enrichment Center.

Davis-Van Atta was an invited speaker on “Writers for Migrant Justice” at Houston Writers Alliance and the Holocaust Museum Houston.

Davis-Van Atta co-presented “Customized CV Service Workflows for DSpace Repositories” with Diana Dulek, Laura Ramirez, and Anne Washington at North American DSpace User Group Meeting; and “Assessing Library-Led Digital Scholarship Projects and Digital Research Operations” at Texas Conference on Digital Libraries and “Building Frameworks for Assessing Digital Scholarship Projects and Early Digital Publishing Operations at UH Libraries” at Library Publishing Forum with Santi Thompson and Claude Willan.

Davis-Van Atta was an invited speaker on “Preprint servers for practical and clinical optometrists and biomedical professionals” at University of Houston Optometry summer seminar series; an invited panelist on “The Publisher’s Perspective” at Boldface Writers’ Conference; and an invited moderator on “Changing Roles in Academic Libraries: The Scholarly Communications Librarian” at Texas Library Association Conference.

Orolando Duffus co-wrote “The Diversity and Global Engagement Exposition: Creating a Student-Centered Outreach Initiative at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro University Libraries” with Jenay Solomon which appeared in Improving Library Services in Support of International Students and English as a Second Language Learners.

Duffus serves as chair, BRASS Travel Award Committee; American Library Association (ALA) Diversity Committee; and Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Poster Selection Committee.

Duffus presented a poster, “Committee on Diversity & Inclusion: Cultivating an inclusive library environment,” at 85th World Library and Information Congress of International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions; co-presented on a panel, “Spectrum Leadership Institute: Navigating Oppression,” at the Annual Conference & Exhibition of ALA; co-presented on a panel with Andrea Malone, “Evidence-Based Practices Discussion Group: Assessing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts in Your Library” at ALA; and co-presented on a panel, “Reframing the Residency Narrative: Creating, Sustaining and Reinventing the Profession through Library Residency Programs,” at ACRL Conference.

Duffus wrote “The Art and Science of Securing a Job in an Academic Library” which appeared in ACRL College & Research Libraries News.

Catherine Essinger wrote “She-Gods, Gangsters, and Gunslingers: the ‘New Woman’ in the Early Films of Roger Corman” which was published in Bright Lights Film Journal.

Wenli Gao co-presented with Jingshan Xiao “Connecting the dots: Reader ratings, bibliographic data, and machine-learning algorithms for monograph selection” at North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) Conference; and a poster, “You may also like: Machine-learning algorithms for collection recommendations” at ALA Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) poster session.

Gao is incoming vice-president/president-elect of CALA, 2021-2022; and received the CALA President Recognition Award 2019.

Julie Grob serves on the Popular Culture Association Preservation Committee; and presented “The Rhyme Books of HAWK of the Screwed Up Click” at Popular Culture Association Conference.

Rachel Helbing co-wrote “A comparison of anticoagulation, antiplatelet, and placebo treatment for patients with heart failure reduced ejection fraction in sinus rhythm: A systematic review and meta-analysis” which appeared in Heart Failure Reviews.

Helbing and Stefanie Lapka co-presented “Library lockdown: Elevating instruction through an ‘escape room’ experience” at Medical Library Association Annual Meeting.

Helbing received the UH Libraries John P. McGovern Librarian Rookie of the Year award for 2019; and is a member of Academy of Health Information Professionals, Distinguished level.

Helbing was an invited speaker for “Health Literacy: Locating and Evaluating Medical Information Online” at Holly Hall Retirement Community and Life Enrichment of Houston.

Melody Karle was guest editor to a special issue (volume 48, issue 1) of Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture, devoted to personal digital archiving and highlighting the 2018 Personal Digital Archiving Conference in Houston, TX.

Karle presented “How Individuals and Libraries/Archives Approach PDA Differently, and Why it Matters” at Personal Digital Archiving Conference in Pittsburgh, PA.

Karle wrote “Identifying Individual and Institutional Motivations in Personal Digital Archiving” and “Personal and Community Connection: Introduction to the Special Issue on Personal Digital Archiving 2018” (published as Melody Condron), both of which appeared in Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture.

Xiping Liu co-presented a poster, “Learn it together and learn it well: forming a linked data study group at the University of Houston Libraries,” at Texas Library Association (TLA) Annual Conference.

Liu co-wrote “Planting Cedar: An Open Source Linked Data Vocabulary Manager at the University of Houston Libraries” with Andrew Weidner and Anne Washington which appeared in Journal of Library Metadata.

Andrea Malone presented “Embracing Diversity: Successful Stories and Programs Serving Diverse Patrons” at CALA Program at ALA Annual Conference; and “Assessing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in your library” at ACRL University Libraries Section (ULS) Evidence-Based Practices Discussion Group Program at ALA Annual Conference.

Malone was appointed chair of the Modern Language Association Advisory Committee on the MLA International Bibliography; and was appointed to the ALA International Relations Roundtable International Librarians’ Orientation/Mentoring Committee.

Daniel Pshock presented “Reports are boring and you know it” at the User Experience in Libraries V conference which will be published in the conference proceedings.

Pshock organized a UX community of practice for UH.

Ariana Santiago presented in a panel, “Endurance is not transformation: Narratives of women of color on the promotion- and tenure-track,” at ACRL Conference with Mea Warren; a panel, “Open educational resources in Texas academic libraries,” at Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL); and was invited to present in a “Getting Started with OER” webinar series hosted by the Texas Digital Library.

Santiago co-authored “Evaluating academic library outreach to determine return on investment for student success” with Mea Warren, Emily Vinson, and Ashley Lierman, published in Journal of Library Administration.

Santiago serves on the Texas OER Coordinating Committee and served on the ACRL ULS Conference Program Planning Committee.

Santi Thompson is a member of ALCTS Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award Jury, 2019 and co-coordinator, Digital Library Federation (DLF) Assessment Interest Group (AIG).

Thompson co-presented “Reuse and Use: New Definitions for Digital Library Assessment,” at the 14th International Conference on Open Repositories.

Thompson co-presented “Bridge2Hyku: Building the Bridge Towards an Open Source Digital Solution” at Coalition For Networked Information (CNI) Meeting.

Thompson co-wrote “‘Everyone’s A Curator’: Identifying The Everyday Curator,” published in The International Journal Of The Image; “How We Talk About Assessment: A New Framework For Digital Libraries,” published in The Serials Librarian; and “Measuring Reuse of Institutionally-Hosted Grey Literature,” published in The Grey Journal: An International Journal On Grey Literature.

Thompson’s co-authored article, “Barriers and Solutions To Assessing Digital Library Reuse: Preliminary Findings,” published in Performance Measurement And Metrics, was selected as an outstanding paper in the 2019 Emerald Literati Awards.

Mea Warren was selected as a Rising Star in the Special Library Association (SLA); and serves as co-chair of the Fundraising Committee for the Physics-Astronomy-Math Division of SLA.

Anne Washington was elected vice-chair/chair-elect for ALCTS Metadata Interest Group.

A. Washington co-presented “Bridges To Hyku: A Multi-Institutional Effort Towards Migration Tooling” and on a panel, “Bridging the Gap Between Librarians and Developers,” both at TCDL; and co-presented “Strategies and Tools for Metadata Migration Analysis and Harmonization” at Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Annual Conference.

A. Washington and Todd Crocken presented a workshop, “Strategies and Tools for Digital Repository Selection and Migration,” at Digital Initiatives Symposium and ACM/LEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL).

Madelyn Washington presented “Tales From The Cornfield: Intercultural Expressions From The Singing Librarian” on a panel titled “The Diary as Literature through the Lens of Multiculturalism in America” at Northeast Modern Language Association 50th Anniversary Convention; and “‘Making it’ in Today’s Gig Economy: Information Pathways for Success” at TLA Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) Summit.

Andrew Weidner wrote “Vocabulary Manager at the University of Houston Libraries,” published in Journal Of Library Metadata.

Weidner co-presented “Bridge2Hyku: Tools and Strategies for Content Migration to Open Source Repository – Hyku” with Annie Wu, Santi Thompson, Todd Crocken, Sean Watkins, and Anne Washington at Open Repositories.

Weidner presented “Designing a Migration Path IMLS Grant” at South Central States Fedora Users Group Meeting.

Annie Wu co-presented “Bridge2Hyku: Building the Bridge towards an Open Source Digital Solution” with Todd Crocken, Dean Seaman, Santi Thompson, and Anne Washington at Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) Webinar.

New Librarians

headshot of Reid Boehm

Reid Boehm

Research Data Management Librarian

headshot of Edward Gloor

Edward Gloor

Engineering Librarian

headshot of Madelyn Washington

Madelyn Washington

Coordinator of the Music Library